How do things persist? Are material objects spread out through time just as they are spread out through space? Or is temporal persistence quite different from spatial extension? This key question ...
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How do things persist? Are material objects spread out through time just as they are spread out through space? Or is temporal persistence quite different from spatial extension? This key question lies at the heart of any metaphysical exploration of the material world, and it plays a crucial part in debates about personal identity and survival. This book explores and compares three theories of persistence — endurance, perdurance, and stage theories — investigating the ways in which they attempt to account for the world around us. Having provided valuable clarification of its two main rivals, the book concludes by advocating stage theory. Such a basic issue about the nature of the physical world naturally has close ties with other central philosophical problems. This book includes discussions of change and parthood, of how we refer to material objects at different times, of the doctrine of Humean supervenience, and of the modal features of material things. In particular, it contains new accounts of the nature of worldly vagueness, and of what binds material things together over time, distinguishing the career of a natural object from an arbitrary sequence of events. Each chapter concludes with a reflection about the impact of these metaphysical debates upon questions about our personal identity and survival.Less

How Things Persist

Katherine Hawley

Published in print: 2004-09-30

How do things persist? Are material objects spread out through time just as they are spread out through space? Or is temporal persistence quite different from spatial extension? This key question lies at the heart of any metaphysical exploration of the material world, and it plays a crucial part in debates about personal identity and survival. This book explores and compares three theories of persistence — endurance, perdurance, and stage theories — investigating the ways in which they attempt to account for the world around us. Having provided valuable clarification of its two main rivals, the book concludes by advocating stage theory. Such a basic issue about the nature of the physical world naturally has close ties with other central philosophical problems. This book includes discussions of change and parthood, of how we refer to material objects at different times, of the doctrine of Humean supervenience, and of the modal features of material things. In particular, it contains new accounts of the nature of worldly vagueness, and of what binds material things together over time, distinguishing the career of a natural object from an arbitrary sequence of events. Each chapter concludes with a reflection about the impact of these metaphysical debates upon questions about our personal identity and survival.

A magnificent proliferation of new Christ-centered devotional practices reveals profound changes in the Western Christian temperament of the twelfth century and beyond. This change has often been ...
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A magnificent proliferation of new Christ-centered devotional practices reveals profound changes in the Western Christian temperament of the twelfth century and beyond. This change has often been attributed to an increasing emphasis on God's embodiment in the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. This book offers a fresh narrative explaining theological and devotional change by asking how religious men and women understood the effects of God's incarnation on the natural, material world. It finds a willingness on the part of medieval Christians to embrace the material world as a locus for divine encounter. Early signs that perceptions of the material world were shifting can be seen in reformed communities of religious women in the twelfth-century Rhineland. Here, in response to the constraints of gendered regulations and spiritual ideals, women created new identities as virgins who, like the mother of Christ, impelled the world's re-creation—their notion of the world's re-creation held that God created the world a second time when Christ was born. In this second act of creation God was seen to be present in the physical world, thus making matter holy. The book traces the diffusion of this new religious doctrine beyond the Rhineland, showing the impact it had on both women and men in professed religious life.Less

Holy Matter : Changing Perceptions of the Material World in Late Medieval Christianity

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

A magnificent proliferation of new Christ-centered devotional practices reveals profound changes in the Western Christian temperament of the twelfth century and beyond. This change has often been attributed to an increasing emphasis on God's embodiment in the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. This book offers a fresh narrative explaining theological and devotional change by asking how religious men and women understood the effects of God's incarnation on the natural, material world. It finds a willingness on the part of medieval Christians to embrace the material world as a locus for divine encounter. Early signs that perceptions of the material world were shifting can be seen in reformed communities of religious women in the twelfth-century Rhineland. Here, in response to the constraints of gendered regulations and spiritual ideals, women created new identities as virgins who, like the mother of Christ, impelled the world's re-creation—their notion of the world's re-creation held that God created the world a second time when Christ was born. In this second act of creation God was seen to be present in the physical world, thus making matter holy. The book traces the diffusion of this new religious doctrine beyond the Rhineland, showing the impact it had on both women and men in professed religious life.

The book adopts a realist epistemology in terms of relaying ‘facts. It also acknowledges that these are mediated through language and metaphor and also that dissonances between actuality and ...
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The book adopts a realist epistemology in terms of relaying ‘facts. It also acknowledges that these are mediated through language and metaphor and also that dissonances between actuality and representation are common. Yet the material cannot be ignored: the number of humans is basic to any consideration of environmental change, as are the flows of energy and matter between the human and non-human spheres of activity. Neither can we talk to ‘nature’: we talk to ourselves about it. One helpful image might be the famous DNA spiral in which the strands are those of humans and ‘nature’ and the base pairs suggest the linkages between them. A widening gyre can indicate the growth in the levels of impact the one upon the other.Less

Resonances

I. G. Simmons

Published in print: 2008-03-05

The book adopts a realist epistemology in terms of relaying ‘facts. It also acknowledges that these are mediated through language and metaphor and also that dissonances between actuality and representation are common. Yet the material cannot be ignored: the number of humans is basic to any consideration of environmental change, as are the flows of energy and matter between the human and non-human spheres of activity. Neither can we talk to ‘nature’: we talk to ourselves about it. One helpful image might be the famous DNA spiral in which the strands are those of humans and ‘nature’ and the base pairs suggest the linkages between them. A widening gyre can indicate the growth in the levels of impact the one upon the other.

This book examines the medieval perception that the phenomenal world was the material matrix into which God entered when he became human via Mary. It explores the complex relationships between women ...
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This book examines the medieval perception that the phenomenal world was the material matrix into which God entered when he became human via Mary. It explores the complex relationships between women and men in professed religious life in the later Middle Ages, along with the gendered language and imagery of monastic instruction. It emphasizes the significance of the doctrine of re-creation to the later medieval religious imagination and in understanding the meaning of key terms and concepts in the scholarly literature of medieval Christianity, including “nature,” “incarnation,” and “affective piety.” It uses the term “holy matter” to refer to the natural, material world as made holy by its re-creation in the incarnation and crucifixion. This notion of re-creation would have profound implications for Christian devotion in the later Middle Ages. The book also places a special emphasis on trees because of their relation to the natural world as a result of God's remaking it in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.Less

Introduction

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This book examines the medieval perception that the phenomenal world was the material matrix into which God entered when he became human via Mary. It explores the complex relationships between women and men in professed religious life in the later Middle Ages, along with the gendered language and imagery of monastic instruction. It emphasizes the significance of the doctrine of re-creation to the later medieval religious imagination and in understanding the meaning of key terms and concepts in the scholarly literature of medieval Christianity, including “nature,” “incarnation,” and “affective piety.” It uses the term “holy matter” to refer to the natural, material world as made holy by its re-creation in the incarnation and crucifixion. This notion of re-creation would have profound implications for Christian devotion in the later Middle Ages. The book also places a special emphasis on trees because of their relation to the natural world as a result of God's remaking it in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ.

This chapter examines how devotion and theology centered on the world's re-creation developed in the twelfth century, using the Speculum virginum as a starting point. The Speculum virginum (Mirror of ...
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This chapter examines how devotion and theology centered on the world's re-creation developed in the twelfth century, using the Speculum virginum as a starting point. The Speculum virginum (Mirror of Virgins) is a document that sheds light into the lives of religious women in the twelfth century. Written around the year 1140, this text was designed to teach male pastors how to train religious women in Scripture, virtue, elements of theology, and monastic life. The chapter first situates the Speculum virginum within twelfth-century monastic reform efforts in the Rhineland and the pastoral care, or cura monialium (care of nuns) received by religious women from men during the period. It then considers how the author of the Speculum virginum fashions his own ideals of enclosure, virginity, and speculation. It also shows how the Speculum virginum introduced into women's communities a reformed sense of positive affirmation in speculation, training religious eyes to see the divine imprint in the material world.Less

The Mirror of Holy Virginity

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This chapter examines how devotion and theology centered on the world's re-creation developed in the twelfth century, using the Speculum virginum as a starting point. The Speculum virginum (Mirror of Virgins) is a document that sheds light into the lives of religious women in the twelfth century. Written around the year 1140, this text was designed to teach male pastors how to train religious women in Scripture, virtue, elements of theology, and monastic life. The chapter first situates the Speculum virginum within twelfth-century monastic reform efforts in the Rhineland and the pastoral care, or cura monialium (care of nuns) received by religious women from men during the period. It then considers how the author of the Speculum virginum fashions his own ideals of enclosure, virginity, and speculation. It also shows how the Speculum virginum introduced into women's communities a reformed sense of positive affirmation in speculation, training religious eyes to see the divine imprint in the material world.

This chapter examines the relationship of natural metaphors to their literal referents in the material world by focusing on the status of the wilderness in later medieval Carthusian devotion. It ...
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This chapter examines the relationship of natural metaphors to their literal referents in the material world by focusing on the status of the wilderness in later medieval Carthusian devotion. It first considers the imaginative theology of speculation offered by the Dominican friar Henry Suso before turning to two Carthusian instructional treatises on speculation: the Vita Jesu Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and the anonymously authored poem The Desert of Religion. It then discusses the ways that these Carthusian treatises of spiritual instruction demonstrate an uneasy relationship to the real, material world and an uncertainty as to how the professed religious might properly regard it with trained meditative eyes. These and a number of other Carthusian devotional treatises represent a pivotal moment in the operation of speculation of the natural world. This chapter also describes the cloister architecture of the later medieval Carthusians.Less

An Estranged Wilderness

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This chapter examines the relationship of natural metaphors to their literal referents in the material world by focusing on the status of the wilderness in later medieval Carthusian devotion. It first considers the imaginative theology of speculation offered by the Dominican friar Henry Suso before turning to two Carthusian instructional treatises on speculation: the Vita Jesu Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and the anonymously authored poem The Desert of Religion. It then discusses the ways that these Carthusian treatises of spiritual instruction demonstrate an uneasy relationship to the real, material world and an uncertainty as to how the professed religious might properly regard it with trained meditative eyes. These and a number of other Carthusian devotional treatises represent a pivotal moment in the operation of speculation of the natural world. This chapter also describes the cloister architecture of the later medieval Carthusians.

By contrast with the other four men in these case studies, the earl of Strafford was never an arbiter of taste and was concerned only with following the latest fashions. Yet paradoxically it was by ...
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By contrast with the other four men in these case studies, the earl of Strafford was never an arbiter of taste and was concerned only with following the latest fashions. Yet paradoxically it was by emulating prevailing styles in personal and material display rather than by creating them that he looked to manage his identity as a successful diplomat, and his career demonstrates the increasing importance of the material world in diplomatic life. By 1700 a diplomat’s overseas residence had become an important locus of display, and not just his carriages, plate, and dress but also his furniture, pictures, and furnishings fulfilled a significant role in ambassadorial etiquette. Strafford patronized architects, cabinet-makers, silversmiths, artists, upholsterers, and decorative painters to ensure that his position as a senior minister was clearly evidenced by his material world – to both the English social elite and to his foreign diplomatic colleagues.Less

Ubiquitous Display : The Earl of Strafford, 1672–1739

Helen Jacobsen

Published in print: 2011-11-03

By contrast with the other four men in these case studies, the earl of Strafford was never an arbiter of taste and was concerned only with following the latest fashions. Yet paradoxically it was by emulating prevailing styles in personal and material display rather than by creating them that he looked to manage his identity as a successful diplomat, and his career demonstrates the increasing importance of the material world in diplomatic life. By 1700 a diplomat’s overseas residence had become an important locus of display, and not just his carriages, plate, and dress but also his furniture, pictures, and furnishings fulfilled a significant role in ambassadorial etiquette. Strafford patronized architects, cabinet-makers, silversmiths, artists, upholsterers, and decorative painters to ensure that his position as a senior minister was clearly evidenced by his material world – to both the English social elite and to his foreign diplomatic colleagues.

This chapter examines Hildegard of Bingen's belief in viriditas as a speculatory means of identifying God's presence in the material world, along with its relation to virginitas and to the concepts ...
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This chapter examines Hildegard of Bingen's belief in viriditas as a speculatory means of identifying God's presence in the material world, along with its relation to virginitas and to the concepts of incarnation and salvation. The image of Hildegard's merry band of virgins, attired in silken garments and embroidered crowns during tony feast day celebrations, has captured the imagination of scholars, filmmakers, and medieval enthusiasts alike. These “blithe noble virgins” donned gold jewelry and allowed their hair to flow freely beneath floor-length veils to receive communion as true brides of Christ. Hildegard's fondness for sartorial luxury made a devotional and theological point about the divine materiality of re-creation, as well as the role that the consecrated virgin played in it. This chapter discusses the Speculum virginum, Hildegard's liturgical compositions, and Herrad of Hohenbourg's Hortus deliciarum to show how Hildegard fashioned a theology of virginity based on viriditas and virginitas.Less

Viriditas and Virginitas

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This chapter examines Hildegard of Bingen's belief in viriditas as a speculatory means of identifying God's presence in the material world, along with its relation to virginitas and to the concepts of incarnation and salvation. The image of Hildegard's merry band of virgins, attired in silken garments and embroidered crowns during tony feast day celebrations, has captured the imagination of scholars, filmmakers, and medieval enthusiasts alike. These “blithe noble virgins” donned gold jewelry and allowed their hair to flow freely beneath floor-length veils to receive communion as true brides of Christ. Hildegard's fondness for sartorial luxury made a devotional and theological point about the divine materiality of re-creation, as well as the role that the consecrated virgin played in it. This chapter discusses the Speculum virginum, Hildegard's liturgical compositions, and Herrad of Hohenbourg's Hortus deliciarum to show how Hildegard fashioned a theology of virginity based on viriditas and virginitas.

This chapter examines Clare of Assisi's focus on the crucifixion of Christ—his “suffer[ing] on the tree of the cross”—as part of her pursuit of poverty. It considers Clare's devotional persuasion ...
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This chapter examines Clare of Assisi's focus on the crucifixion of Christ—his “suffer[ing] on the tree of the cross”—as part of her pursuit of poverty. It considers Clare's devotional persuasion over the men in the Franciscan order, the Friars Minor, and how her prayer life, developed during her struggle to observe poverty, influenced later meditations written by and for Franciscan men of the First Order. Focusing on Clare's innovative meditation as described in her letters to Agnes, a certain princess from the kingdom of Bohemia, this chapter suggests that Clare's struggle to achieve poverty and acceptance of Francis of Assisi's Rule shaped her spiritual direction and her goals for communal religious life. In the prayers she shared with her sisters in Prague, she focused on Christ's crucifixion as the one event that had utterly altered the rules of the material world. The chapter concludes by discussing Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's Lignum vitae (Tree of Life), in which he also uses a tree of crucifixion in an attempt to conform the self to Christ.Less

Clare of Assisi and the Tree of Crucifixion

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This chapter examines Clare of Assisi's focus on the crucifixion of Christ—his “suffer[ing] on the tree of the cross”—as part of her pursuit of poverty. It considers Clare's devotional persuasion over the men in the Franciscan order, the Friars Minor, and how her prayer life, developed during her struggle to observe poverty, influenced later meditations written by and for Franciscan men of the First Order. Focusing on Clare's innovative meditation as described in her letters to Agnes, a certain princess from the kingdom of Bohemia, this chapter suggests that Clare's struggle to achieve poverty and acceptance of Francis of Assisi's Rule shaped her spiritual direction and her goals for communal religious life. In the prayers she shared with her sisters in Prague, she focused on Christ's crucifixion as the one event that had utterly altered the rules of the material world. The chapter concludes by discussing Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's Lignum vitae (Tree of Life), in which he also uses a tree of crucifixion in an attempt to conform the self to Christ.

This book has explored the devotional origins and development of the medieval doctrine of re-creation. It has shown how religious communities of the later medieval period comprehended matter as ...
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This book has explored the devotional origins and development of the medieval doctrine of re-creation. It has shown how religious communities of the later medieval period comprehended matter as potentially holy and posited that the material world was re-created by the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. It has argued that the purpose of some of the more literal expressions of later medieval devotion was to achieve access to a God who was fully present in the material world, while simultaneously materially transcendent. In analyzing Christian perceptions of the natural world as potentially holy matter, the book has highlighted the emergence of a new spiritual ideal of virginity in which enclosed women attained a fresh identity.Less

Conclusion

Sara Ritchey

Published in print: 2014-03-24

This book has explored the devotional origins and development of the medieval doctrine of re-creation. It has shown how religious communities of the later medieval period comprehended matter as potentially holy and posited that the material world was re-created by the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. It has argued that the purpose of some of the more literal expressions of later medieval devotion was to achieve access to a God who was fully present in the material world, while simultaneously materially transcendent. In analyzing Christian perceptions of the natural world as potentially holy matter, the book has highlighted the emergence of a new spiritual ideal of virginity in which enclosed women attained a fresh identity.

The object is central to this book's argument, and it focuses on surrealist reactions to, and production of, objects; on the way various surrealists respond to and intervene in the material world ...
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The object is central to this book's argument, and it focuses on surrealist reactions to, and production of, objects; on the way various surrealists respond to and intervene in the material world through text, painting, and particularly through the invention of the objet surréaliste. Part of the reason for such an approach is a response to the problematic relationship between theory and practice. Focusing on the object is a way of engaging with surrealist products as political in themselves, and moving beyond the political alignment of the surrealists as individuals and as a group. It allows us to test various surrealist products against the political claims made on their behalf. It is possible to read it as a crossroads of political and psychoanalytic theories, as a point on which Marxist and Freudian preoccupations, the political insight of ‘profane illumination’ and the psychological fascination of ‘le merveilleux’, converge.Less

Introduction

Johanna Malt

Published in print: 2004-01-22

The object is central to this book's argument, and it focuses on surrealist reactions to, and production of, objects; on the way various surrealists respond to and intervene in the material world through text, painting, and particularly through the invention of the objet surréaliste. Part of the reason for such an approach is a response to the problematic relationship between theory and practice. Focusing on the object is a way of engaging with surrealist products as political in themselves, and moving beyond the political alignment of the surrealists as individuals and as a group. It allows us to test various surrealist products against the political claims made on their behalf. It is possible to read it as a crossroads of political and psychoanalytic theories, as a point on which Marxist and Freudian preoccupations, the political insight of ‘profane illumination’ and the psychological fascination of ‘le merveilleux’, converge.

This chapter examines George Berkeley's denial of matter from the standpoint of the Catharism doctrines on matter. It compares the ideas professed by the medieval Dualistic ...
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This chapter examines George Berkeley's denial of matter from the standpoint of the Catharism doctrines on matter. It compares the ideas professed by the medieval Dualistic heresies and Berkeley's denial of the existence of matter. It offers a historical introduction to the problem of Catharism, retells the story of Berkeley's refutation of the material world as it appears from the vantage point of the Cathar doctrine on matter and attempts to connect both beliefs to a recurring archetypal Dualistic pattern employed in facing the evil realm of matter.Less

George Berkeley and Catharism

Costica Bradatan

Published in print: 2007-01-15

This chapter examines George Berkeley's denial of matter from the standpoint of the Catharism doctrines on matter. It compares the ideas professed by the medieval Dualistic heresies and Berkeley's denial of the existence of matter. It offers a historical introduction to the problem of Catharism, retells the story of Berkeley's refutation of the material world as it appears from the vantage point of the Cathar doctrine on matter and attempts to connect both beliefs to a recurring archetypal Dualistic pattern employed in facing the evil realm of matter.

Seventeenth-century diplomacy was a very visual form of politics and luxury consumption was integral to its conduct. English diplomats abroad were exposed to the very highest levels of expenditure on ...
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Seventeenth-century diplomacy was a very visual form of politics and luxury consumption was integral to its conduct. English diplomats abroad were exposed to the very highest levels of expenditure on architecture and the arts by foreign monarchs; this book seeks to look beyond the public displays and to ascertain whether the ambassadors’ own lives were affected by the conspicuous consumption with which they were surrounded. A marked similarity between the evolution of diplomatic theory and the evolution of a diplomat’s material world is revealed. The extent to which diplomats acted as conduits for objects, paintings, artists, and craftsmen is demonstrated, and how their experiences abroad impacted on their subsequent consumption and patronage. Conspicuous consumption of foreign luxury goods is posited firmly in the political sphere.Less

Introduction

Helen Jacobsen

Published in print: 2011-11-03

Seventeenth-century diplomacy was a very visual form of politics and luxury consumption was integral to its conduct. English diplomats abroad were exposed to the very highest levels of expenditure on architecture and the arts by foreign monarchs; this book seeks to look beyond the public displays and to ascertain whether the ambassadors’ own lives were affected by the conspicuous consumption with which they were surrounded. A marked similarity between the evolution of diplomatic theory and the evolution of a diplomat’s material world is revealed. The extent to which diplomats acted as conduits for objects, paintings, artists, and craftsmen is demonstrated, and how their experiences abroad impacted on their subsequent consumption and patronage. Conspicuous consumption of foreign luxury goods is posited firmly in the political sphere.

This chapter discusses how the shape of the material world at Bent's Old Fort directed behavior into ritualistic patterns and reinforced cultural assumptions regarding the world of our ancestors. It ...
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This chapter discusses how the shape of the material world at Bent's Old Fort directed behavior into ritualistic patterns and reinforced cultural assumptions regarding the world of our ancestors. It explains that the fort and the surrounding landscape operated in a similar way to the medicine lodge of the Sun Dance to ritually convey both the new social order and the legitimation of that order embedded in the seeming naturalness of the massive and imposing structure. The chapter also argues that the fort was an effective model of a panoptic structure, a reflection of the set of behaviors associated with panopticism, behaviors which were imposed by the architecture of the fort on all who lived and visited there.Less

Bent's Old Fort as the New Word

Douglas C. Comer

Published in print: 1996-12-23

This chapter discusses how the shape of the material world at Bent's Old Fort directed behavior into ritualistic patterns and reinforced cultural assumptions regarding the world of our ancestors. It explains that the fort and the surrounding landscape operated in a similar way to the medicine lodge of the Sun Dance to ritually convey both the new social order and the legitimation of that order embedded in the seeming naturalness of the massive and imposing structure. The chapter also argues that the fort was an effective model of a panoptic structure, a reflection of the set of behaviors associated with panopticism, behaviors which were imposed by the architecture of the fort on all who lived and visited there.

This concluding chapter considers an important metaphor for textuality within the Buddhist tradition, which is the “turning the wheel of the dharma.” It discusses the cycle of textual production and ...
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This concluding chapter considers an important metaphor for textuality within the Buddhist tradition, which is the “turning the wheel of the dharma.” It discusses the cycle of textual production and relates it to given technologies of sutra devotion, particularly of sutra reading that developed in Asia and was used in medieval Japan. The chapter also examines the material aspects of Buddhist textuality and “the potential of abstract ideas to shape the material world,” and furthermore explains how Buddhist language—as it is manipulated by human bodies—materializes as physical forms.Less

Conclusion : On Circumambulatory Reading

Charlotte Eubanks

Published in print: 2011-01-01

This concluding chapter considers an important metaphor for textuality within the Buddhist tradition, which is the “turning the wheel of the dharma.” It discusses the cycle of textual production and relates it to given technologies of sutra devotion, particularly of sutra reading that developed in Asia and was used in medieval Japan. The chapter also examines the material aspects of Buddhist textuality and “the potential of abstract ideas to shape the material world,” and furthermore explains how Buddhist language—as it is manipulated by human bodies—materializes as physical forms.

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings and issues discussed in this book about the philosophy of George Berkeley. It was shown that there are a number of important ...
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This concluding chapter sums up the key findings and issues discussed in this book about the philosophy of George Berkeley. It was shown that there are a number of important topics, notions and concerns about Berkeley's thought that are often not covered in today's mainstream Berkeley scholarship. These issues include alchemy, archetypal knowledge, the liber mundi and Cathar-like attitudes to the material world. This chapter clarifies that this book does not attempt to replace the existing manner of treating Berkeley's philosophy, it only shows the importance and possibility of supplementing existing analytically-minded scholarship with a sense of historical awareness.Less

Conclusion

Costica Bradatan

Published in print: 2007-01-15

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings and issues discussed in this book about the philosophy of George Berkeley. It was shown that there are a number of important topics, notions and concerns about Berkeley's thought that are often not covered in today's mainstream Berkeley scholarship. These issues include alchemy, archetypal knowledge, the liber mundi and Cathar-like attitudes to the material world. This chapter clarifies that this book does not attempt to replace the existing manner of treating Berkeley's philosophy, it only shows the importance and possibility of supplementing existing analytically-minded scholarship with a sense of historical awareness.

The secularisation of mentalities in France and England was denoted by the shift towards a more anthropocentric conceptualisation of humanity and by the way in which certain secular discourses came ...
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The secularisation of mentalities in France and England was denoted by the shift towards a more anthropocentric conceptualisation of humanity and by the way in which certain secular discourses came to dominate the public mind. This chapter addresses how the French and English Catholic writers seek to undermine what Owen Chadwick famously called the secularisation of the European mind. The chapter considers the critique of naturalistic readings of the material world, of mechanisation, scientism and the secularising influence of German thought. Such critiques exemplify the need they felt of being buffered against secular mentalities at large. It examines the views of intellectual and anti-intellectual Catholic writers about the proper methodology with which to attack secular thought. This study shifts through the ways in which they asserted meaning in the cosmos by re-establishing links between the material and the spiritual domains.Less

Thinking and believing

Brian Sudlow

Published in print: 2011-08-31

The secularisation of mentalities in France and England was denoted by the shift towards a more anthropocentric conceptualisation of humanity and by the way in which certain secular discourses came to dominate the public mind. This chapter addresses how the French and English Catholic writers seek to undermine what Owen Chadwick famously called the secularisation of the European mind. The chapter considers the critique of naturalistic readings of the material world, of mechanisation, scientism and the secularising influence of German thought. Such critiques exemplify the need they felt of being buffered against secular mentalities at large. It examines the views of intellectual and anti-intellectual Catholic writers about the proper methodology with which to attack secular thought. This study shifts through the ways in which they asserted meaning in the cosmos by re-establishing links between the material and the spiritual domains.

We are material beings in a material world, but we are also beings who have experiences and feelings. How can these subjective states be just a matter of matter? To defend materialism, philosophical ...
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We are material beings in a material world, but we are also beings who have experiences and feelings. How can these subjective states be just a matter of matter? To defend materialism, philosophical materialists have formulated what is sometimes called “the phenomenal-concept strategy,” which holds that we possess a range of special concepts for classifying the subjective aspects of our experiences. This book argues that the strategy is mistaken. A rejection of phenomenal concepts leaves the materialist with the task of finding some other strategy for defending materialism. The book points to four major puzzles of consciousness that arise: How is it possible for Mary, in the famous thought experiment, to make a discovery when she leaves her black-and-white room? In what does the explanatory gap consist and how can it be bridged? How can the hard problem of consciousness be solved? How are zombies possible? The book presents solutions to these puzzles—solutions that relieve the pressure on the materialist created by the failure of the phenomenal-concept strategy. In doing so, it discusses and makes new proposals on a wide range of issues, including the nature of perceptual content, the conditions necessary for consciousness of a given object, the proper understanding of change blindness, the nature of phenomenal character and our awareness of it, whether we have privileged access to our own experiences, and, if we do, in what such access consists.Less

Consciousness Revisited : Materialism without Phenomenal Concepts

Michael Tye

Published in print: 2008-12-12

We are material beings in a material world, but we are also beings who have experiences and feelings. How can these subjective states be just a matter of matter? To defend materialism, philosophical materialists have formulated what is sometimes called “the phenomenal-concept strategy,” which holds that we possess a range of special concepts for classifying the subjective aspects of our experiences. This book argues that the strategy is mistaken. A rejection of phenomenal concepts leaves the materialist with the task of finding some other strategy for defending materialism. The book points to four major puzzles of consciousness that arise: How is it possible for Mary, in the famous thought experiment, to make a discovery when she leaves her black-and-white room? In what does the explanatory gap consist and how can it be bridged? How can the hard problem of consciousness be solved? How are zombies possible? The book presents solutions to these puzzles—solutions that relieve the pressure on the materialist created by the failure of the phenomenal-concept strategy. In doing so, it discusses and makes new proposals on a wide range of issues, including the nature of perceptual content, the conditions necessary for consciousness of a given object, the proper understanding of change blindness, the nature of phenomenal character and our awareness of it, whether we have privileged access to our own experiences, and, if we do, in what such access consists.

This chapter examines the institution of urban contemporary cult shrines in Benin City, introducing the forms of organisation and strategies used by shrine priests and considering some of the ideas ...
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This chapter examines the institution of urban contemporary cult shrines in Benin City, introducing the forms of organisation and strategies used by shrine priests and considering some of the ideas and practices that are integral to this institution. The word ohen is used in the Edo language to describe a priest who worships on behalf of a community or as a Christian minister. The achievement of the privileged relationship to a deity confers power upon the ohen, influence in the spirit world through the intervention of that deity, and thus the ability to shape the outcome of events in agbon (the material world). In some circumstances, it is possible for ohen to acquire shrines through the direct intervention of the deity. In these cases, the deity usually takes the individual to its spiritual domain, often for lengthy periods of time, to be instructed in the required rites.Less

Priests and Shrines

Gore Charles

Published in print: 2007-10-26

This chapter examines the institution of urban contemporary cult shrines in Benin City, introducing the forms of organisation and strategies used by shrine priests and considering some of the ideas and practices that are integral to this institution. The word ohen is used in the Edo language to describe a priest who worships on behalf of a community or as a Christian minister. The achievement of the privileged relationship to a deity confers power upon the ohen, influence in the spirit world through the intervention of that deity, and thus the ability to shape the outcome of events in agbon (the material world). In some circumstances, it is possible for ohen to acquire shrines through the direct intervention of the deity. In these cases, the deity usually takes the individual to its spiritual domain, often for lengthy periods of time, to be instructed in the required rites.

This epilogue argues that war is a profound reminder of human materiality and fragility. Conflicts are made and decided through the interaction of human beings and the material world. The inquiries ...
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This epilogue argues that war is a profound reminder of human materiality and fragility. Conflicts are made and decided through the interaction of human beings and the material world. The inquiries started in this book offer the foundation for a historically informed investigation of this interaction in the new forms of warfare in an age in which the virtual often seems to have more presence than the material. Indeed, new technologies have radically changed the materiality of war. Rather than physically encountering the enemy on the battlefield or entering homes as they invade enemy territory, for example, many soldiers are now sitting thousands of miles away launching missiles or operating drones that do first the reconnaissance and then the killing for them.Less

Epilogue

Leora AuslanderTara Zahra

Published in print: 2018-05-15

This epilogue argues that war is a profound reminder of human materiality and fragility. Conflicts are made and decided through the interaction of human beings and the material world. The inquiries started in this book offer the foundation for a historically informed investigation of this interaction in the new forms of warfare in an age in which the virtual often seems to have more presence than the material. Indeed, new technologies have radically changed the materiality of war. Rather than physically encountering the enemy on the battlefield or entering homes as they invade enemy territory, for example, many soldiers are now sitting thousands of miles away launching missiles or operating drones that do first the reconnaissance and then the killing for them.